Enhance colours in your sunrise and sunset shots
Even the brightest, most colourful golden-hour shots can benefit from a helping hand – and this technique is the way to do it…
All landscape photographers know that the best times to shoot are around sunrise and sunset, when the colour and quality of light are at their best. But despite following this simple rule, how many times have you got back to your computer to find that the colours you captured aren’t quite as vibrant as you remember them?
Adding colour to an already vibrant and colourful sky may sound pointless or even feel like cheating – but when you’ve tried this technique, which is popular with professional landscape and travel photographers, you’ll never look back. The technique can be used in one of two ways: to enhance bold colours that already exist in the sky, or to rescue a shot where only a little colour was thrown up into the clouds by the rising or setting sun. The former requires more care, so this approach will be the basis for the tutorial. Let’s get started…
Sample sky colour
Open your image and hold down Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+N to create a New Layer. Next, press I on the keyboard to activate the Eyedropper Tool and set Sample Size to 3 by 3 Average. Click and sample an area of colourful sky before doubleclicking on the foreground colour on the Tool panel. When the dialog box opens, select a more vibrant version of the selected colour and click OK.
Add a Layer Mask
On the Layer panel go to the dropdown menu set to Normal, and select Overlay to add a degree of transparency to the coloured area. Next, click on the Add A Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a Layer Mask – it’s a rectangle with a circle in the centre. Now select Image > Apply Image.
Paint over the sky
With this colour selected, press B on the keyboard to activate the Brush Tool, then click on the downward-facing arrow next to the brush tip icon in the top-left area of the Photoshop window. Select a medium size brush with Hardness set to 50%, and paint over the whole sky, taking care not to go over the horizon too much (although it’s not a problem if you do).
Blend the colour
When the Apply Image dialog box opens, the default settings should be applied, but make sure Layer is Merged, Channel RGB, Blending Multiply, Opacity 100% and that Invert is not ticked. Click OK, and the Layer Mask will target brighter areas of the sky. Most images need two to three passes of Apply Image – this one required three to get the best result.
Check the horizon
Zoom into the image by pressing Ctrl/Cmd-plus, then hold down the space bar while clicking to drag the view over the horizon area to look for colour bleed. If you do see any bleed areas, the Layer Mask will be active so simply use the Brush Tool set to black and paint over the bleed to remove it. You can zoom out again by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+0 (zero).
Refine the effect
Go to Image > Apply Image; when the dialog window opens, the default settings will definitely be in place after step 4, but this time make sure Invert is ticked before you click OK. This will target the darker tones in the photo. You may well need two to three passes of Apply Image; this image required three. For each pass, make sure Invert is ticked to avoid undesired results.
Enhance the clouds
Make the clouds more prominent using a tweaked version of the colour technique. Create a new layer, then paint roughly over the clouds with a soft-edge brush set to black. If the black goes over any unwanted areas, use the Eraser tool (E) to remove unwanted areas of black. Now set the Blend mode to Overlay and add a Layer Mask.
Clean up the sky
Zoom into the sky and check to see if darker patches are visible in the areas where there are no clouds. If not, flatten the image and Save. If there are dark patches, the mask should still be active from the previous step, so use a medium-sized soft-edge brush and carefully paint over these areas with black set as the foreground colour.